Application of Time-Ageing Time and Time-Temperature-Stress Equivalence to Nonlinear Creep of Polymeric Materials

Based on the observations that high temperature accelerates creep rate of polymer while physical ageing plays a reverse role, and that there is an analogy between the influences of stress and temperature on the intrinsic times of polymers, the time-ageing time superposition principle (TASP) and the time-temperature-stress superposition principle (TTSSP) are used to evaluate the long-term creep behavior of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). PMMA specimens were aged for 2 to 120 hours at identical temperature, their short-term creep strains with 2-hour test duration were measured under various stress levels ranging from 14 to 30 MPa at room temperature, and modeled by means of time-ageing time equivalence and time-stress equivalence. The results show that the creep rate increases with stress, but decreases with ageing time. The ageing time shift factors vary with the stresses at which the shifts are applied. The ageing shift rate is independent on imposed stress in linear viscoelastic region, while it decreases with increasing stress when the material behaves in a nonlinear viscoelastic manner. The master creep compliance curve up to about 1-month at reference ageing time 120 hours and stress 18 MPa, which is nearly 2.5 decades longer than the test duration, is constructed by shifting the creep curves horizontally along the logarithmic time axis. The result illustrates that TTSSP, combined with TASP, provides an effective accelerated test technique for long-term mechanical behaviors of polymers.